Barton, Elizabeth
Barton, Elizabeth (c.1506–34). Prophetess. Known as the Maid of Kent, Elizabeth Barton, a domestic servant, developed religious mania, with trances and visions. She was taken up by local catholic priests and used to discredit Lutheran ideas. But when she took up the cause of Catherine of Aragon and declared that Henry VIII would die if he divorced her, the Maid moved into deep waters. For a time she was protected by Warham, More, and Fisher, but when Cranmer succeeded Warham as archbishop he interrogated Barton and obtained a confession that her revelations were feigned. With several of her associates she was executed at Tyburn in April 1534.
J. A. Cannon
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Barton, Elizabeth
